Pride and Prejudice (blog 4)

To me, the ending seemed kind of sudden. It's not so much that it was fast as it seemed that Jane Auston just went down a check list of all the problems and came up with the simplest solution. The story was obviously finished but the point it finished at was completely different from where I thought it would end.

Obviously Elizabeth was going to marry Mr. Darcy, but the point they ended it at was very awkward. Instead of showing it as a love story it seemed more like a story about over coming social classes. The entire last chapter is dedicated to how the characters have improved their class or remained at the same level or in someway made their mark on the standings of those around them, whether they approve or disapprove.

Mrs. Bennet brags about having two daughters so well married. Kitty learns to be better well rounded over all from the company she now keeps. Lydia and Wickham are as bad with money as ever and are rejected to some varying degree by all the people around them (Kitty isn't allowed to go see them and only Lydia is rarely accepted into Premberly). Miss Bingly doesn't like the situation at all but acts nice so that she will still be allowed at Premberly. Lady Catherine is extreamly angrey about her nephew marrying so far beneath himself that she doesn't talk with him for quite a while. And last but not least, Elizabeth and Darcy love the Gardiners because they brought them together by taking Elizabeth to Derbyshire.

The last paragraph is very telling about the whole story. "With the Gardiners thy were always on the most intimate terms. Darcy, as well as Elizabeth, really loved them; and they were both ever sensible of the warmest gratitude towards the persons who, by bringing her into Derbyshire, had been the means of uniting them." (page 436). The very last thing the book addresses is "...the means of uniting them." (page 436), not their love for each other or any other sappy romantic stuff. This shows that the novel as a whole is interested in the how of overcoming social boundries, and not the why (love).

Going back a ways and on a side note, I realized that Premberly is sort of a miror image of Mr. Darcy. i believe this because to get to Premberly you have to go through the woods for a while before you can see the actual house. With Mr. Darcy Elixabeth knows him for quite a while before she actualy sees who he is.